F1 race in Austin near invisible

UPDATE Another reader writes, They've already built additional grandstands and those, too, are almost sold out. They've stopped selling General Admission tickets, though I'm sure they can start again.

This racetrack wasn't built here because Austin is a hotbed of Formula One fans. It was built here because it's roughly the same distance and an easy drive from Houston and D/FW. We have a first class international airport with direct flights to almost every major city in the country. It's an easy flight from Toronto or Mexico City. The Europeans will have a longer trip, but many of them already know and love Austin because they have been to the SxSW and Austin City Limits festivals, so they know what to expect. Why will they come? To see Formula 1 on a beautiful, rolling, proper race track.

Austin is a beautiful city with tons of nightlife and things to do away from the track. Yes, there will be some traffic snarls and hotel problems in the first year, but it still takes two hours to get into Texas Motor Speedway and the first year it took us six.

My biggest concern is that it can actually get quite cold in Austin in November. If a big cold front blows through it could be in the 40s or 50s for a couple of days before warming up. But it won't be hot… Kerry Vincent

08/20/12 A reader writes, Dear AR1.com, While I was in Austin this past weekend I did not see one banner, billboard or anything else about the up-coming F1 race. Nothing at Austin airport. I was in down Austin nothing there either, just reports in newspaper paper – a lot in-fighting on spending money for the race. I talked with manger of the hotel I stayed and all the rooms were sold for race weekend. They are sprucing up the rooms – they have the contractors working 12 hours a day 7 days a week to get it done.

I said the road leading to the track is going to be a real pain for the people going to the track and the hotel manager said that they are working on it. Also the F1 delegation from Austin that went to the race at Silverstone said that F1 fans wait in line 4 or 5 hours to the track on race day and they didn't see that as much of a problem. I guess they figure that the fans here will understand that that's normal [good luck with that], also no fans will be allowed to park inside the track that is for the F1 people and VIPs.

Shuttles will take the fans to and from the track. I brought up Bernie's name I said half joking that he is already planning to ditch the race after a few years so he move it to New York or somewhere else in the US. The manger said everybody thinks Bernie Ecclestone is a total jerk. I said they should talk to Indy Car and ALMS. The manger said that they want the MOTO GP race and that is going to happen.

While there I never heard anyone talking about the F1 race And I was in a sports bar. All the people were interested in was the stick and ball sports on the big screen TVs. The Nationwide race was on but no one was watching it. Your Undercover spy Mike